Kobayashi and Vergne also penalised

No one can claim that the Valencia race stewards were not kept busy following Sunday's eventful European Grand Prix.

Not only did they hand out a post-race time penalty to Pastor Maldonado, stripping him of his one world championship point, but they also found Sauberís Kamui Kobayashi and Toro Rossoís Jean-Eric Vergne guilty of causing avoidable incidents.

The first collision happened on lap 27, when Vergne attempted to overtake Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham.

The Toro Rosso looked to have completed the move, but before he was completely clear of the Finnish driver, he cut across him and banged wheels.

'Vergne made what looks like a rookie mistake, hit me and I had to come in for a new nose, From that point I was just trying to get to the end of the race.' Kovalainen told 'Autosport Magazine.

Vergne saw it as a racing incident explaining: 'I felt I was ahead and as I started to turn into the corner, we collided and his front wing clipped my rear wheel, There was too much damage to the floor and it was impossible to change the damaged rear wheel so there was no way for me to continue.'

Later in the race Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham team-mate Vitaly Petrov and Toro Rossoís Jean-Eric Vergne's team-mate Daniel Ricciardo also had a coming together, but the race stewards opted to take no further action following a review.

They didn't come to the same conclusion when reviewing the incident that left both Kovalainen and Vergne with punctures and the Toro Rosso driver was awarded a ten-place grid penalty for the British Grand Prix and a 25,000 euro fine.

'In view of the serious nature of the incident the Stewards have decided under Article 18.1 to apply two penalties,' the stewards statement read.

Article 18.1 of the sporting rules states: 'The stewards may inflict the penalties specifically set out in these Sporting Regulations in addition to or instead of any other penalties available to them under the Code.'

While Kamui Kobayashi was given a five-place penalty for his late collision with Felipe Massa.

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